I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

Last Friday sometime in the early hours of the morning (I later learned it was at precisely 5:04AM) Joe and I both woke to our room shaking and the mirror above our dresser rattling against the wall. 

Joe asked what was going on and I, in my sleep-induced stupor, suggested the garbage truck.  He quickly through aside this suggestion as it was not garbage day.  His next thought was, "Maybe it's an earthquake."  Then he promptly rolled over and went back to sleep since the room had stopped shaking.  My response was, "No, it's not an earthquake.  Is it?"

For a long while after Joe easily went back to sleep I lay, wide-awake, waiting for something else (maybe aftershocks) to happen, wondering if there really had been an earthquake.  Eventually, I too, went back to sleep. 

When Joe got up awhile later and began getting ready for work, I asked him if he really thought there had been an earthquake.  He responded with, "What are you talking about?"  I reminded him of us both awaking to the room shaking and he could remember nothing of the sort.  So, he left me for the morning to ponder whether I had dreamed the shaking room event or whether it had actually happened. 

Around 10:30 that morning a friend popped by and while she was visiting she inquired, "What did you think of the earthquake this morning?"  I replied, "So there really was an earthquake?"  To which she said, "Yeah, it's plastered all over CNN, haven't you seen the news?"  I sheepishly replied that it had not occurred to me to check the news yet this morning.

Much to my surprise there had actually an earthquake:  last Friday at 5:04AM in this area of Maryland.  It registered a 3.6 on the Richter scale and confirmed that while I am crazy, I'm not THAT crazy! 

I can also no longer say that my husband would sleep through an earthquake.  Although maybe waking up, talking about it, falling immediately back asleep, and then forgetting that there ever was such an event, thereby making your wife think she's crazy, qualifies as sleeping through it. 

Regardless of whether it's fair to accuse my husband of sleeping through an earthquake, I can verify that all three of my children soundly slept through the Earth moving under their feet.